Elite: Dangerous is a space adventure, trading, and combat simulation video game developed and published by Frontier Developments. Piloting a spaceship, the player explores a realistic 1:1 scale open world galaxy based on the real Milky Way, with the gameplay being open-ended. The game is the first in the series to attempt to feature massively multiplayer gameplay, with players' actions affecting the narrative story of the game's persistent universe, while also retaining single player options. Elite: Dangerous is the fourth game in the Elite video game series. It is the sequel to Frontier: First Encounters,released in 1995.

Having been unable to agree to a funding deal with a publisher for many years, the developer began its Kickstarter campaign in November 2012. Pre-release test versions of the game had been available to backers since December 2013, and the final game was released for Windows in December 2014, with the OS X version later released in May 2015. A "preview" version of the game for Xbox One was later released via the Xbox Game Preview Program in June 2015 during Microsoft's briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, and was fully released in October 2015, with a PlayStation 4 version coming in the second quarter of 2017. Elite: Dangerous supports virtual reality devices, including the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. By the end of April 2015, Elite: Dangerous had sold over 500,000 copies, with Frontier Developments expected to generate £22 million from sales